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Medical Malpractice Law News

Tracks News and Trends in Medical Malpractice Law in United States.
By Mary R. Kennedy

Post Frequency: 0.6/day

Last Entry: April 02, 2013 at 09:42:01

Connecticut Looks At Med Mal Review Law

Posted on April 02, 2013
The CT Mirror reported yesterday that attorneys are pushing for changes in that state's medical malpractice lawsuit procedures, specifically in how cases come to court. "Since 2005, a patient wanting to claim damages from a doctor for alleged negligence must have his or her case reviewed by a similar health care provider, who will certify whether the claim has merit...

Missouri: House Passes Bill To Reinstate Med Mal Damage Caps

Posted on April 01, 2013
As reported by St. Louis Public Radio, The Missouri House has passed Legislation to reinstate medical malpractice damage caps that was "tossed out last year by the Missouri Supreme Court." (The court found that the cap law violated a right to a jury trial...

Changes in State Medical Malpractice Laws

Posted on March 19, 2013
We want to hear about changes to laws governning medical malpractice in your state. Please send news articles, press releases and links to maryrkennedy -at- gmail.com. Or, add information directly through our commenting system. Here's a recent round-up: Oregon - Governor Kitzhaber will sign a bill passed by the House where, through the Oregon Patient Safety Commission, patients and providers

Medical Malpractice Payouts 2012 Data | Infographic

Posted on February 04, 2013
What do you think about this type of infographic? Is it a useful communications tool? Does it get across the point that is trying to be made? It is published by the Cunningham Group, and designed by SteamDriven. "Using data culled from multiple sources we compiled an over view of the payouts for medical malpractice awards based on 2011 and 2012 data...

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Select Tort Reform Summary State by State Since 1986

Posted on January 31, 2013
An article published on Need to Know on PBS on changes to the medical malpractice system, included a table that summarized selected tort reforms enacted since 1986 and which states have enacted them. The reforms that it included are: Modify Joint-and-Several Liability Modify the Collateral-Source Rule Limit Noneconomic Damages Limit Punitive Damages Click here to read the article and view the

Massachusetts Medical Mistakes: Sorry Seems to Be The Hardest Word

Posted on January 28, 2013
The Boston Globe Magazine yesterday ran an article that follows up on our previous post on the attempt in Massachusetts to control costs with its medical mistake DA&O law (disclosure, apology and offer). The article by Dr. Darshak Sanghavi is headlined, Why is it so hard for doctors to apologize? Fixing a system built on blame and revenge will require bold ways of analyzing mistakes and a radical

Massachusetts Passes Health Care Cost Control Bill

Posted on August 28, 2012
A newly enacted law in Massachusetts will adopt the "disclosure, apology and offer (DA&O)" approach to help resolve malpractice cases. The Healthcare Cost Control Bill recently passed by the Massachusetts legislature and signed by Gov. Deval Patrick on August 6 contains specific language that facilitates a DA&O approach to medical malpractice claims...

New Hampshire Considers Early Offer Settlement Bill

Posted on April 27, 2012
Former NH Superior Court and Supreme Court judge Chuck Douglas has weighed in on the controversial SB 406 a bill to provide "early offer" settlements as a way to expedite medical malpractice settlements. According to Douglas in an opinion piece in SeacoastOnline...

Mass. Hospitals Look To Promote Culture of Openess and Apologies Regarding Medical Errors

Posted on April 26, 2012
A coalition of seven Massachusetts hospitals are undertaking an intiative to transform a culture of "secrecy and denial" regarding medical errors according to a report in The Boston Globe. The hospitals in the coalition include Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton, Baystate Medical Center in Springfield,

Wrongful Birth Medical Malpractice Award is $2.9 Million in Oregon

Posted on March 20, 2012
Usually when reporting medical malpractice verdicts and settlements it is the phrase 'wrongful death' that comes up, not 'wrongful birth'. But a rare 'wrongful birth' trial reached a conclusion for the parents of child who was born with Downs Syndrome claiming doctors for medical negligence in pre-natal care, in the amount of $2...

State Lawmakers Blast House GOP's Medical Malpractice Reform Plan

Posted on March 19, 2012
In today's The Hill's Healthwatch the article ? State lawmakers blast House GOP's medical malpractice reform bill - mentions a letter from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), expressing strong, bipartisan opposition to attaching federal medical malpractice legislation to the Medicare accountability bill as a "State's rights issue...

Sanjay Gupta Writes Novel on Inside World of Medicial Errors

Posted on March 11, 2012
Every time surgeons operate, they're betting their skills are better than the brain tumor, the faulty heart valve, the fractured femur. Sometimes, they're wrong. At Chelsea General, surgeons answer for bad outcomes at the Morbidity and Mortality conference, known as M & M...

Patient Safety: How To Reduce Your Chance of a Medical Error

Posted on February 06, 2012
Here?s what Consumer Reports and Dr. Peter Pronovost, senior vice president for patient safety and quality at Johns Hopkins Medicine, say patients can do to keep themselves safe when they go to a hospital. Do your homework. Go to the Web sites Hospital Compare and the Joint Commission and look up hospitals in your Zip code...

In Pennsylvania, $23 Million Jury Award for Woman Who Lost Both Legs Due to Infection

Posted on September 19, 2011
Headlines out of Allentown, PA's The Morning Call, indicate a medical malpratice lawsuit by a woman who lost both legs due to infection while under care the care of a home care nurse, has been awarded $23 million by a jury. According to the report: "The medical malpractice verdict, among the highest ever in the county, came after attorneys [the plantiff] argued that her home-care nurse failed

Lubin & Meyer: Boston Jury Verdict Is $11.48 Million with Interest

Posted on August 31, 2011
Breaking news via Law Links Health Links: Lubin & Meyer announced on its Twitter page tonight that they had won a jury verdict in a case involving the death of an 8-day old baby. After much searching and hand-ringing we found the first report providing more details on the case in the Boston Globe...

Medical Malpractice Lawsuits Common, Payments Are Not

Posted on August 19, 2011
Kaiser Health News reports on the findings of a study published this month by the New England Journal of Medicine suggesting that "only one in five malpractice lawsuits results in a payout. The authors conclude that the truth behind these numbers is complicated...

New Jersey: Largest Medical Malpractice Verdict in Orange County

Posted on July 18, 2011
According to a report in the Times-Herald Record, an Orange County, New Jersey jury has reached a verdict in the case of a critical-care physician and nurse at Bon Secours Community Hospital accused of a medical error causing a woman to suffer a brain injury and became severely disabled...

McDonald Hopkins Files Federal Lawsuit Challenging Constitutionality of Illinois Law

Posted on July 17, 2011
CHICAGO, IL ? Hospital-based pathology groups and physicians in Illinois have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to invalidate, on constitutional grounds, Illinois legislation designed to shift the burden of absorbing certain patient-related costs from insurers to practitioners of only a few specifically-enumerated medical specialties...

Outpatient Electronic Prescribing Systems Don?t Cut Out Common Mistakes

Posted on July 08, 2011
Outpatient electronic prescribing systems don?t cut out the common mistakes made in manual systems, suggests research published online in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA). And not all systems are the same: some perform worse than others, the study shows...

Send Us News of Your Medical Malpractice Verdict or Settlement

Posted on May 03, 2011
Medical Malpractice Law News seeks to aggregate news and trends on medical malpractice topics including mentions of significant settlements and trial verdicts in your state. Please forward news releases or a summary of key points with credible links to confirm your news...

California Jury Awards $4.5 Million

Posted on April 09, 2011
A wrongful death medical malpractice trial that ended in a hung jury a year ago, this time ended in a jury awarding "...$3.5 million in general damages, including pain and suffering, and more than $1 million in economic damages," according to the Pasadena Star-News...

Who Benefits from Medical Malpractice Caps, Doctors or Insurers?

Posted on March 27, 2011
In an article about New York's debate over medical malpractice caps, the New York Times looks at California's experience with caps, writing: "...states that have similar caps in place offer cautionary evidence about the big savings for health care providers that such limits are believed to produce...

Pennsylvania Leader in Reporting 'Never Events'

Posted on March 23, 2011
The Allentown, PA Morning Call published a lengthy article by Tim Darragh on wrong-site surgery in Pennsylvania. The report titled, 'Never events' happen dozens of times a year, starts with this lead in... "More than five times a month, every month, a doctor in Pennsylvania commits one of the medical establishment's greatest taboos ? working on the wrong part of a patient's body, or even the

In Connecticut, 'Safe Harbor' Language Causes Stir

Posted on March 21, 2011
New London, Connecticut's Day.com carries an editorial by John Foley, a former cardiologist, regarding the importance of 'safe harbor' offered by adhering to evidence-based medicine practices. The state's SustiNet legislation recently had the safe harbor language remo which has physicians up in arms...

Mass General Lawsuit Hopes To Change Internal Policies

Posted on March 15, 2011
A recent lawsuit filed against Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston provides the family of a woman who died as the result of a medical error with an opportunity to push for changes in hospital policies. The family's attorney Drew Meyer said in a Fox News interview that what the family is pushing for "is some recognition by Mass General that they are changing their policies...

In New Hampshire, Medical Malpractice Screening Panels Under Review

Posted on February 23, 2011
From sister website NH Medical Malpractice News, is a post providing the number of cases that have come before New Hampshire's medical malpractice screening panels... "... there have been some 387 cases brought to the attention of screening panels since 2007, with 147 resolved prior to panel review...

In Montana, $1.7 Million Jury Award

Posted on February 22, 2011
The Missoulan reports via Associated Press article on a medical malpractice jury award of $1.7 million in a lawsuit filed by a family over the death of a father/husband that alleged his chest pain was misdiagnosed as a torn muscle, rather than a leaky heart valve...

In Florida, $19.2 Million for Medical Error in Newborn

Posted on February 09, 2011
In Lee County Florida comes news of a medical malpractice lawsuit with a $19.2 million award filed by a family who's premature infant was given 100 times the intended dose of nutrients leading to cardiac arrest and complications believed to lead to cerebral palsy and blindness...

Looking at Mediation Instead of Trial for Medical Malpractice Cases

Posted on February 03, 2011
NPR's Health Blog, Shots, carries a post briefly outlining some of the financial incentives of mediation v. trial for medical malpractice cases. Writes author Michelle Andrews: "Plaintiff's lawyers typically work on a contingency basis in medical malpractice cases, earning about 30 percent of the settlement amount...

Medical Liability/Medical Malpractice Laws by State

Posted on January 29, 2011
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) does a great job of documenting medical liability/malpractice laws and legislation by state. We feature a link to the list in our Medical Malpractice Resources section, but thought a post here was in order to better publicize this excellent resource...

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